Veronica didn't recognize the monster at first, since it looked so much different from the Ethereal Plain.
He was well over two meters in height. His skin was disgusting, full of open blisters leaking their pus everywhere. In the place of his legs, two arms grew out, and all over his body, multiple other arms moved.
They had no muscle or fat, only skin and bone. They were also unnaturally long, and the fingernails were closer to claws in size.
The worst part was his face. There was no hair left on it, and it had multiple crazy brown eyes. On his mouth there was no lip, only sharp uneven teeth.
It took Veronica a second to get up and move away from Michael, so the monster wouldn't notice him.
When she was far enough away, she bent down and brought out Lady Helper from her mostly intact thigh holster.
She checked the bullets placed inside. There was one Stun, one Explosive, one Heavenly, one Speed, one Equalizer, one Plant, and two Death Bullets.
With one look, she made sure to remember where all of them were, so she wouldn't accidentally fire the wrong one.
After she was far enough away, she saw McLean's Corrupted form smell the air, and move towards the area where Michael laid.
Veronica's blood boiled just from the thought of what could've happened if she was knocked out, too. She gave no heads up to the monster.
She raised her revolver, turned the cylinder, until the Death Bullet was in place, then she pulled the hammer back, and shot the bullet straight at McLean's chest.
There should've been nothing influencing the shot, and it should've killed the monster with ease. But right as Veronica pulled the trigger, she stepped on an uneven stone.
For less than a second Veronica lost balance, and the bullet that should've killed the monster missed him by millimeters.
In that moment, the ruins of the church turned absolutely silent, then out of nowhere, a screeching roar shook the rubble.
Veronica had little time to react, before a piece of debris twice the size of Veronica flew towards her head.
She moved so fast that she left afterimages behind her, and still she was nearly too slow.
The piece of stone flew so fast that the moment it hit something solid, it turned to dust, with only a few small rocks remaining.
She didn't turn around, instead she ran further away from Michael. She heard the large creature move. It was so loud that it was impossible not to hear.
He was closing in fast, much faster than he did back in the Ethereal Plain. She couldn't run away from him either, since Michael still needed to be protected.
With a heavy heart, she decided to fight and kill McLean, but she wouldn't do it stupidly.
It took her a few more seconds of sprinting to find a place, which she could use for her advantage.
It was a small alley in between the destroyed houses. It would restrict the monstrous form of McLean, but give her enough space to dodge and move around.
There she stopped and turned around, raising her revolver a second time. Once the three meters tall, many-handed monster turned the corner, Veronica pulled the trigger.
The purple bullet flew out, hitting the monster in one of its many eyes. They all went wide for a moment, then he stumbled and had to lean onto one of the destroyed buildings.
The Stun bullet done its job with perfection. With the monster stationary, she pulled back the hammer, turning the cylinder to the next bullet. It had a white pentagram on its casing, marking it as a Heavenly Bullet.
It shot out with a small explosion within the casing and hit the monster in the chest. Veronica tried to aim for his heart, but it was impossible to know where it was.
The monster screamed in pain as the bullet hole burst into holy flames.
Veronica didn't give him time to recover and pulled the trigger again, shooting out the Explosive Bullet. The monster 'accidentally' flailed one of its many arms at the bullet, so it exploded prematurely.
Two and the hand from a third arm exploded, causing the creature's scream to increase.
He pushed one hand into his chest, pulling it open. He then grabbed the bullet burning with holy flames and tossed it towards the sky.
His anger grew, and his insanity sharpened. One of his leg arms grabbed and threw a fallen brick towards Veronica.
She dodged it without issue, but it gave McLean enough time to close in the distance, so Veronica couldn't take her next shot.
The monster was fast as he reached out with a few arms and tried to swipe at her with the rest. But when it came to evasion, Veronica was faster.
She jumped towards the closest wall, and using her right leg as a spring, she wall jumped over McLean.
He was reaching towards her with one of its disgusting hands when Veronica pulled the trigger of Lady Helper. The white bullet sped away. It was at least twice as fast as a normal bullet.
It hit the creature's shoulder, one of them at least. The arm, which was reaching towards Veronica, was suddenly separated from the creature.
He screamed again and turned around as fast as he could in the thin alley.
The turning was much faster than Veronica anticipated, because he didn't actually turn. Instead, he bent backwards, moving into a bridge position, then using two of his upper arms, he stood up straight.
His head was now right between his two new 'legs', while on the top, his disgusting crotch area was way too visible.
He laughed madly and ran at Veronica. She dodged a vertical swipe, by moving to the side, then evaded getting her legs swept from under her, by doing a backflip.
She landed right on top of an extended arm, where she quickly jumped away from by kicking the enormous monster in the chest.
Unexpectedly, McLean lost balance and fell. It was most likely a side effect of being upside down, but Veronica didn't waste time by thinking about it.
She pulled the trigger on her revolver again, hitting the creature straight in the head.
The green bullet caused vines to grow and encapsulate McLean's head and a few of his arms.
Veronica used this time to aim at the monster with her other Death Bullet, but she recalled what happened last time.
This was her only chance of finishing the monster off, so even though it was an extremely dumb idea, she done it anyway.
Instead of aiming at the creature, she moved Lady Helper, and shot herself in the foot with the Death Bullet.
As it entered her body, she felt her life force seep away. Her body felt weaker by the second and she had only a few moments left before dying.
Veronica walked to the struggling form of McLean and shoved the barrel of her revolver right on top of his head.
The hammer moved back, and the trigger was pulled. The gray bullet left its casing with a loud bang, and before it could accelerate too much, it entered McLean's skull.
It didn't kill him instantly, which was something Veronica expected, but the Equalizer done its job with great success.
The moment the bullet hit the monster, she felt her life force return to normal. A few new wounds appeared on her body, mostly just missing skin, where the monster lost arms.
She was hoping and was happy to find out that both of her arms stayed, even though she took away 4 of McLean's.
The couple of new wounds caused a lot of pain to her, but she didn't show any signs. She wasn't even blinking as she watched McLean's body struggle less and less until he turned motionless.
She continued to stare at him for a few minutes, making sure he was actually dead.
Afterward, she breathed a sigh of relief and began walking away. Inside her head, a voice that was silent all this time finally spoke...
"Well shit. Wasn't I supposed to be the crazy one? Shooting yourself with a Death Bullet to counter the unluckiness of a 7th Order Monster?... How did you know it would work?"
Veronica walked in silence for a few more seconds before a stupid grin spread across her face.
"I didn't even know they had that kind of ability. I just guessed!"
The quiet was louder than any word she had heard in her life. After another few seconds, Tom's booming laughter echoed in her mind, which she reciprocated and doubled.
She was laughing so hard that she had to stop for a moment and lean against a broken wall.
She laughed and laughed until the laughs turned into sobs. At this point, she did not know where all her tears were coming from. It was like she had an infinite supply of them.
Veronica didn't even know why she was crying, but she felt like part of her heart was being ripped out.
A horrible feeling passed over her, like some part of her had died.
The terror was near overwhelming, but she put one foot after the other, until she reached Michael's side, where she knelt.
He was close to regaining consciousness, but the feeling stayed persistent.
At first she thought that something has happened to her lover, but that wasn't the case.
She tried to think where this heart-wrenching came from, but there was only one place and one family that came to her mind...